The first time the spacecraft flew around Mercury

Last night an American spacecraft flew into Mercury orbit, the smallest and most exotic planet in the solar system.

. Illustration of the Messenger ship flying around Mercury. Photo: solarsystem.ie.

AP said, Messenger, the spacecraft of the US Aerospace Agency (NASA), arrived at Mercury last night after a journey of 6 and a half years. In the process of crossing 4.9 million km, it always had to resist the attraction from the sun. Thus, Mercury is the fifth planet in the solar system to be monitored by American spacecraft.

' Messenger flies about 190 km from Mercury's surface. That is the perfect distance , 'said Eric Finnegan, chief engineer of the Messenger ship.

Not only difficult to access, Mercury is also the planet with the most strange climate in the solar system. The difference between day and night temperatures on this planet is 1,100 degrees C. When Mercury is closest to the sun, the surface temperature is up to 800 degrees C. But below the big holes, where the light the sky is not coming, the temperature is usually below - 300 degrees C.

NASA used to launch the Mariner on Mercury in the 1970s, but it only captured the image of a small stone on it.

Robert Strom, a scientist who participated in the Messenger launch project, said that flying the orbiter into Mercury's orbit is extremely difficult. Since the signal from the train takes 8 minutes to reach the earth, engineers cannot change the parameters of the ship immediately if there is an unexpected incident.

Built at $ 446 million, Messenger flew to space in 2004. Next month it will begin sending photos of the earth and exploring magnetic fields, the physical structure of Mercury. This planet contains many mysteries that scientists want to discover. Age equivalent to Venus, Earth and Mars, but Mercury has many differences with the other three planets.